Hour 3: NFL Injury Updates, Kyle Tucker’s Struggles, plus ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne Talks Lakers Sale Drama

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20:55The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

20:59Rich Eisen:ESPN radio audience, along with our Disney Plus audience, joining us here is the authoritative voice on what's going on with the Lakers and all their legal battles, Ramona Shelburne here on The Rich Eisen Show. How are you, Ramona? I'm good. Yeah, it's been kind of a whirlwind the last week with the sale from Mark Walter to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, and now this family infighting, which is funny because, I mean, doesn't it feel like we've done this before? Yeah, it kind of feels like it. You know, if I'm not mistaken, you know, because we've had Jeannie on the show multiple times, Jeannie Buss, that back when she was dueling it out with her siblings years ago over ownership and, you know, those moments are actually coming into play right now, if I'm not mistaken about what's in a court document, what's in the contracts and things of that nature, which we'll get to in a second.

21:56Rich Eisen:She said Kobe told her to become Khaleesi, like the mother of dragons and just breathe fire and just take it over. And it looks like Khaleesi is still the governor there, Ramona. For now. Yeah, for now. I mean, I think, look, I think she and her lawyers believe that this court order from 2017 is going to stand up. um the thing is she sold the team to mark walter initially and she had her deal with mark walter and yes it's in writing and yes it's for four more years but like she doesn't have the majority of the shares and then mark's not going to be that guy anymore and there's two new guys who just are going to pay a valuation of 12 and a half billion and so there was always a question of like how long would that arrangement hold and so i i'm still i was already wondering that before the five other siblings decided to sell and um i don't know look when it's five against zero she just didn't vote she didn't she didn't respond to the vote because she's like you don't have the authority to do this i'm not even gonna respond to to to say there is a vote here i have the ultimate authority.

23:09And I think she's right as the trust stands because there's the shares of the bus family are in that trust. They're not, it's not like she has 3 % and Jim has three and it's the, it's owned collectively by the family trust. And she is the controlling owner of those shares. So people who deal in, in businesses understand what that means. Um, can't just like, you can say we want to sell, but she doesn't have to, cause she's the chairman of that board. She's the chairman of the board of directors of that trust. So, but the pressure on her to step aside is now exponential, especially after that five zero vote and the sale last week, she's kind of on an Island now.

23:55And I think she may have the legal grounds, but that that's hard to stay on that Island, um, with all the outside pressure that's on her.

24:03Rich Eisen:Okay. So at the risk of turning this into um to go old school court tv can you explain uh in best layman's terms layperson's terms here what the legal battle is because there's the trust document that involves obviously genie buss the current governor of the lakers and her siblings and the way that she can potentially control that block of voting, but there's also the recent sale that could potentially alter that arrangement. I'll give you the floor here, Ramona. Okay. So the siblings believe that they can sell because of what's called a tag along provision. Okay. And I'll define that in layman's terms, which is they have, they had, it's in writing and in the sale to Mark Walter that was completed 10 months ago, that the family can tag along to any sale that he does at the valuation he gets, which is what we now know is 12.5.

25:11They have the option to tag along. And they believe that that tag along option only takes four of the six votes to do so. And that they are invoking that and they don't need her. They don't need her approval here. They don't need her to come along here. She's saying, nope, doesn't nothing can happen. And none of the shares can change hands because I control the shares of the family trust. And the three co-trustees, that's Janie, Joey and Jeannie, are have a responsibility to vote in such a way to ensure that she remains the controlling owner. I think a court order is going to hold. It's a court order.

25:52OK, but the tag along provision and I think this is in with lawyers I've talked to and other people outside of this whole thing. That's really going to be which one supersedes, which one wins out. Is it the court order or is it going to be the tag along provision? And then we get into a discussion about this is a big old word here. OK, when you have a trust, you have fiduciary responsibilities, which is essentially you have an obligation to do what's best for the trust. So when we get to this fundamental question of what is best for the trust, is it best for the trust to sell at 12 and a half billion?

26:25Or is it best for the trust to maintain its shares at their current valuation with Jeannie as a controlling owner? And in which point they also had something at the end of the five years where she was controlling owner. They had a sort of guarantee that they could still get the same$10 billion valuation Mark Walter paid for their shares if they wanted to sell. or they could sell their shares for whatever it's worth in five years. So that whole big question of fiduciary responsibility, all of that, I think what happens next is her lawyer sent a nasty letter to their lawyers. Those lawyers are going to respond either to each other or by filing things in the court.

27:03And if she wants to, she can tie this up or this side of it for four years where she has controlling ownership. But if you're Bob Iger and Josh Krishna, you just sit back, and let the family fight it out because it doesn't really affect your sale to Mark Walter. Right.

27:19Rich Eisen:And you still are the majority owners of the Los Angeles Lakers in that respect, but she's still the governor. Like, how would that work? Right. So that's back to the original question. When Mark sold the team, Bob said in an interview with the California Post, Bob Iger said, we intend to honor that agreement between Jeannie and Mark, which was in writing. but if something changes then it changes so we're back to this original question which we all were wondering which is if somebody pays 12 billion dollars are they really going to let someone else run the team right mark made that deal because he had to make the deal in order to get genie to sell but now mark's selling so will that hold up in court and bob eiger was my boss for a lot of years I think he's a really good executive, Hall of Fame, legendary executive.

28:09Okay. I feel like there was probably a graceful way to resolve this. And I assume he was already thinking through all of that to resolve it, whether in the short term, the long term, medium term, whatever it is. I think that was probably the desired outcome. Nobody likes these headlines. These are ugly headlines for the Lakers, for the NBA, for everyone. And the sooner the family resolves its drama, the sooner Bob and Josh can go start running the Lakers themselves. And how they sort their own business out with Jeannie was going to be kind of a behind the scenes thing. And I don't think it was going to be messy like this is.

28:48Rich Eisen:Well, I mean, what where's that? We just saw a photograph of the commissioner with Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, who were, if I'm not mistaken, that look, that that might be from the playoffs. the NBA finals. So this obviously has been something that's been in the, in the shoot, if you will, for a while. What, what is, what do you think the NBA wants Ramona? They don't want these headlines. Right. Yucky. I think they want the, everybody loves the every owners, you know, ownership sourcing that I talked to. They all love the valuation when your neighbor's house sells for 12 and a half and makes your property value go up.

29:26So they love that. They love that. These were the reason why they were probably sitting together at the finals. I mean, they were very well-known as a big group in Las Vegas. I think that is going to go for somewhere between eight and nine billion dollars when all is said and done. I think Seattle will go four and a half to five, maybe six when all is said and done. That's really good for the owners. They all get a cut. Everybody gets one thirtieth of that. And then of course, they have to pay taxes or however they do that. But it's still a nice windfall for them. It's revenue only owners get.

30:00It's not shared in BRI. So I think, you know, they lost a big bidder in Las Vegas that was driving the price up. I keep hearing Bill Lowry's name, Bill Lowry's name in Las Vegas. Samantha Holloway in Seattle seem to be names that I keep hearing as names to watch on those. Of course, there are other bidders, but those numbers are astronomical, Rich. Like, that's a lot of money and these owners you know are getting that for an expansion franchise where you're still gonna have to build an arena and not in seattle but in vegas you do um and then build a whole franchise out of it and so i think it's just another stratosphere for the nba in terms of valuations but really all of professional sports i think the the values you're going to start seeing and and other owners that i've talked to we've all been talking about it which is the lakers are worth 12 and a half what what are these other franchises worth how many other owners are going to look around and say whoever doesn't get the expansion franchises maybe i'll sell nice um

31:00Rich Eisen:so ramona shelburne here on the rich heisen show one more of the palace intrigue and then we'll just talk about everything writ large sure um did the bus siblings just say an evaluation of 12 and a half billion bucks is is pretty sweet and we're going to go ahead and vote this way knowing um Our sister is going to be very unhappy with this and do everything she can with her legal side of things to prevent it. But we're going to force the issue anyway. Or did the Kushner-Iger group invite them to sell, knowing that that might bring about 100 percent of the sale of their team and let the chips fall with that?

31:46i think uh you're former the first option you laid out i think okay so here's what i here's what i've heard and what we can report what we reported etc um uh there was a vote on whether to sell three or four months ago between the siblings and they had three votes at that time i believe that was the older siblings the the two older brothers and jd bus were on board at that point uh remember all of them have been fired okay jim busk got fired in 2017 i think um johnny hasn't worked for the lakers for years janey got fired recently among in that bloodletting they had around thanksgiving um the two younger brothers got fired uh this this past year once mark's mark took over um people are mad and they got fired and they still had the power to hurt her.

32:40And the only way I think you could have taken them really off the board is to buy them out at that point. But I don't know if it was a money thing or a will thing or whatever, but certainly Jeannie has been aware that her siblings have wanted to sell for a long time. There have been the older brothers, I think, have wanted to sell for much longer. And they didn't have the final two votes for the younger brothers until after Mark Walter Schultz's shares because of the valuation. But also in the statement that that Shams got from the family, which is they just thought it was time to move on. Now that Mark, the team, the guy you sold to and all that is no longer running it.

33:17Yeah, I think it's I think that's kind of the choreography of how how it all went. And I there was a family meeting, I think, or Dave McVenham and my colleague reported that that Joe McCormick had called this sort of family discussion on Monday night, late Monday night to revise the trust for the next four years. It's seemingly, if we look at it in retrospect, it seems like there was a sort of Jeannie bus, maybe revising the trust to solidify her agreement with Mark. One of the other siblings that I've sort of been in touch with said there was these huge tax liabilities. That part spooked them, said, why is she doing that?

34:00Why don't we just sell? It called into question what was going on. They had an open vote and called to sell Tuesday. Remember, Wednesday is when I had a story on Wednesday morning about Mark Walter sharing his shares. So selling his shares. And so the timing, the timing suggests this sale has been knocking at the door for a long time. The families wanted to sell ever since they all weren't involved anymore. And Jeannie's been on this island for quite a long time trying to keep everyone happy. and this was always a very difficult situation to manage and it was set up that way by her father and she'd managed it as long as she could but now this feels like the end one way or another

34:44Rich Eisen:so last one for you here is is how this affects the lakers because right now this whole conversation here is fascinating for you know lawyers who are into this sort of thing or you know what succession state planning watch succession right like it's the roy family if the roy family own the Lakers. I've been making these references for the last two hours and 38 minutes. It's all there. I know. And it's got the feel of like rubbernecking to see what's going on on the side of the NBA freeway here, to use an L.A. phrase. But for all those who are driving around here listening to us on ESPN radio, diehard Laker fans, how does this affect the team?

35:28Rich Eisen:Would Iger and Kushner come in and blow out the front office and change the way that they make up the roster or, and this prevents them from doing this or, or what, what, how does this affect the Los Angeles Laker fan and, and the team Ramona? I think that's the actual most important question, right? The rest of it is a family dispute and, you know, there is some tie into who controls the team and who has a controlling ownership, but Jeannie bus and Mark Walter had a very good working relationship. I remember he told me once, like, what happens if we disagree like who's gonna win out and he goes well we're probably not gonna disagree much because we're already gonna have talked it through um she knows bob eiger i know she's already met with bob eiger i think they have a pretty good working relationship or at least a background from just being important people in la and going to games knowing each other in the business world um she tends to know most of the people in la because she's been the sort of the owner of the Lakers or the, the major, I don't know what you want to call her.

36:32Like the, she sits in the second row. Everybody walks by her seats at every game, you know, for decades, for sure. Yeah. For decades, everybody knows Jeannie in town. And so I think that was going, I wasn't that worried about it because of the two people involved because of Bob Iger and Jeannie bus. I think they would have worked it out somehow. But now it's just more complicated. And as, how does it affect the team? Well, the team is flying. Luka Doncic has chartered a private jet, and he's flying 14 of his teammates to his hometown in Slovenia this week. They'll be there. I think they're probably flying.

37:07It's Tuesday. Maybe they're flying tomorrow. They're starting Thursday. They're all getting gift bags, and he's hosting this big team retreat, and they're going to go fishing on Lake Bled. The details of this are going to be fine. It'll probably be all on everybody's Instagram stories. so watch for that over the next few days uh the team's kind of locked in too they they all a lot of them sign long-term contracts for your deals so there's not much flexibility they traded away their two first round draft picks to get walker kessler there's not much that can be done with the roster i think jj reddick is well regarded as a head coach i don't see him going anywhere obviously rob palinka is uh the general manager he's responsible for constructing this team that was one I had a question on and what Bob Iger and Josh Kushner would do I think my sense would be they would leave everything intact in the short term and then we'll see what happens after this year maybe so the controlling ownership matters because the decisions on JJ on Rob Polinka on the roster need to be made by whoever controls the team and right now it's Jeannie and I thought I think she would have figured something out with Bob Iger and and and Josh but it's gotten a whole lot more complicated because of what's going on with the family and I don't know where it ends up and I don't know how fast it resolves somebody asked me this when you think it'll resolve it you know there'll be clarity by the season starts and I was like nope nope not by the season starts but then again Rich the Padres just sold and it took a long time for the sale of the clothes and there's new owners and when do they come in this happens all the time in professional sports and the people doing the job keep doing the job and then new people come in and they do the job so it's a big deal and yet lucas hosting a retreat they're all

38:59Rich Eisen:gonna bond and that's actually what matters on the court so um last one for you here's the chaser that was the shot here's the chaser you know this guy is as locked in as anybody else and is his business savvy as anybody else. And you said that this deal has been knocking on the door. Is there any connection between LeBron leaving and wanting no piece of this and him no longer being on the Lakers? I don't think so. No, I don't. I don't think there's any tie-in. I really think LeBron, in reporting on his departure after the fact, we all reported on it during the time period, and then now we're doing it after the fact.

39:43I really think he was done with the Lakers after that last game. I don't think there was anything they could have done differently except for maybe give him an extension last year or give him a third year on the first extension he signed. He did a one-on-one. I think he wanted three years. They weren't willing to do that because they wanted it to line up with Luka or they wanted the salary cap flexibility that summer. I don't know if they had Luka yet. but I think that fate was sealed last August I think that I really do now looking back on it I think that was all done he wasn't going to play for less with the Lakers because that's such an insult to play for so much less with this team it's like a when your boss asked you to take a pay cut especially after the year he had and he was so good it's different there's a sort of curse of the incumbency I don't think he wanted to be the third banana he just accepted that role he wanted to be wanted he wants to have a key role it's you know this is luca's team they turned the page it was done last year and and he just everybody made the best of it and he was professional about it he had a great year now he's in philly everyone recruited him miami recruited him cleveland recruited him the warriors obviously have tried to trade for him four times he keeps saying no um it felt good to be wanted compared to a place where they already traded for your replacement.

41:06I get it. No harm, no foul. It's an amicable divorce. Nobody's paying alimony. He's in Philly. He's happy.

41:12Rich Eisen:I appreciate you at least let's ending on something that's amicable because the conversation about everything else beforehand was certainly not that Ramona. Let's keep an eye on all that. And always a pleasure having you on the program. Thank you. Ramona Shelburne, everybody. All right. We got to take a break because we're up against it on the radio side of things. We're back to rap in a sec.

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44:09Rich Eisen:Just transfer your existing data to get up and running fast. Plus, don't pay a cent until you run your first payroll. Try Gusto today at Gusto.com slash rich and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at Gusto.com slash rich. One more time, it's gusto.com slash rich. I made a flippant comment to start the show, and I kind of regret it. So I just want to hit it here because I saw Del Tufo's hat, and I asked him if Kyle Tucker gave it to him. Listen, Dave Roberts is an outstanding manager, and there's a reason why skippers of baseball teams are called managers rather than coaches, right?

44:50Rich Eisen:Sure, they coach. They coach up. but managers manage they manage the game they manage a clubhouse and they manage your different personalities and they also manage the feelings of their players and I think Dave Roberts has maybe the biggest challenge of his entire tenure with the Dodgers on his uh biggest challenge on his hands right now with Kyle Tucker listen I know he's obscenely rich and he had a huge contract and those things can weigh on you. But he's lost right now. Eric Karras, who calls games locally here in Los Angeles, on last night's broadcast, suggested maybe even sending him down.

45:28Rich Eisen:Whoa. Because it's not just his difficulty hitting right now. He's lost the ability to catch a baseball. It's just amazing. Such a sweet game. Like having the yips. What it will do to you. The it is adversity. The it is the pressure. And there was a shot of Tucker in the club and in the dugout wiping away tears. Just got to wonder what has gotten into him. His loss of confidence. He hasn't had a hit in over a week. But it's he's taking it out into the field right now. And again, Roberts has got an uncanny ability to push a button and know what, what, what it takes. I'm just trying to figure out another time of his tenure here another player that he may have had he's an awesome type of guy that can throw an arm around somebody the clubhouse is filled with high character guys as well didn't Max Muncy kind of lose it there for a little bit a couple years ago?

46:30Rich Eisen:I don't recall anybody like this so I kind of regret making that flippant comment right off the bat I should know better so I apologize on that front because this ain't easy man Yeah. Baseball's a tough game, you know, right? I mean, that's that line from, you know, a league of their own. Hard. You know, there's no crying in baseball, but yeah, there is. And baseball's hard because if it wasn't, if it was easy, everyone would do it. And so, you know, no one likes to see anyone struggling. and I know like again Dave Roberts I'm assuming will know what to do here but sending him down would be quite quite a development I don't know if they're going to do that either but at least the Dodgers have the ability to absorb somebody's difficulties and continue to move on that wraps up this edition of the Rich Eisen Show we're back on Wednesday to be back at it the Rich Eisen Show podcast In ESPN's wild world of college football, every Saturday begins with a ritual.

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